”The fact that Gordy started Motown out of his home is more than a quaint historical footnote. Doing that today in Detroit’s residential areas would violate the city’s repressive ban on home-based businesses—a sad comment on how stifling Detroit’s regulations and taxes have become since the 1950s.”

”America’s system of private enterprise gave Gordy the chance to air his records on radio stations and have them compete for sales in record stores all over America. But when Gordy tried to expand the Motown sound into England, he found government standing in his way. The government stations, especially the British Broadcasting Company, refused to play Motown records and give Gordy the chance that private enterprise gave him in the United States. “Because we couldn’t get our records on the government stations,” Gordy said, “our earliest airplay had come from Radio Veronica and Radio Caroline, ‘pirate ships’ anchored a few miles off the coasts of England and Holland.””

”The Motown music broadcast from those pirate ships captivated British listeners. Soon the demand for Gordy’s records swamped record stores from Liverpool to London and forced the bureaucrats to permit the music to be heard on government stations. When Radio Free Europe and The Voice of America began playing Gordy’s records, his empire penetrated the Iron Curtain and truly became an international force.”